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2018-11-22T16:20:35.12Z

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<p>The taper is the rate at which Universal Credit is reduced to take account of earnings.
It is specifically for in work claimants and linked to earnings to incentivise work,
and those in work to earn more. Universal Credit has a single taper of 63 per cent
so payments reduce in a transparent and predictable way as earnings increase. Universal
Credit is a means tested benefit, and income other than earnings, such as pensions,
is taken fully into account in the assessment of Universal Credit. This is consistent
with how legacy means tested benefits such as Employment and Support Allowance, Jobseeker’s
Allowance and Income Support treat pension income. Therefore it would not be consistent
to extend the earnings taper to pensions income and doing so would also undermine
the incentives to work for people of working age.</p>

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions she has had
with representatives of staff working in job centres and service centres on difficulties
experienced by such staff in (a) applying for and (b) receiving payment as claimants
of universal credit.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what process is used by her Department
to estimate the (a) average call duration and (b) amount of calls taken by case managers
working on universal credit; and if she will publish the results of such estimates
for each year for which information is available.

<p>Data can be extracted from the Universal Credit Full Service system to establish
the average number of calls per day and the average duration.</p><p> </p><p>We have
no plans to collect or publish this data routinely given the costs involved in maintaining
it to official statistics standards.</p>

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate her Department
has made of the number of case managers working on universal credit who are seconded
to the national telephony team for each shift; and if she will make a statement.

<p>We currently have 400 colleagues assigned to Universal Credit national tier telephony.
We retain the flexibility to adjust the number of colleagues working on some of the
core functions within Universal Credit to accommodate fluctuations in demand and the
number of colleagues deployed to National Tier telephony will vary month on month
as required.</p>

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her Department's
press release entitled Youth unemployment down 50% since 2010, published on gov.uk
on 16 October 2018, what proportion of recorded employment was under a zero-hours
contract.

<p>The Office for National Statistics (ONS) use the Labour Force Survey (LFS) to provide
estimates for the number of people employed on zero hours’ contracts.</p><p> </p><p>The
ONS figures for people in employment on zero hours’ contracts broken down by age,
do not go back to 2010 and are only currently available up to April-June 2018. Therefore
no directly comparable figures to the youth unemployment statistics cited are available.</p><p>
</p><p>The majority of young people are not employed on zero hours’ contracts. In
2018 (Apr-Jun) there were 261,000 16-24 year olds on a zero hours’ contracts – representing
only 6.9% of employed 16-24 year olds.</p><p> </p><p>This is down from 299,000 young
people (7.8% of employed young people) in 2017 (Apr-Jun), but a slight increase from
the first comparable data available, which shows in 2014 (Apr-Jun) there were 235,000
young people on a zero hours’ contract (or 6.3% of employed young people).</p><p>
</p><p>Many people in full-time education are employed on zero hours’ contracts, in
part because of the flexibility they provide. 18.5% of all people in 2018 (Apr-Jun)
on zero hours’ contracts were in full-time education – compared to 2.3% of people
not on a zero hours’ contract.</p><p> </p><p>The ONS data shows that the majority
of people on zero hours’ contracts are happy with the hours provided by their zero
hours’ contract.</p>

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure
that the calculation of universal credit for self-employed people (a) accurately reflects
(i) the amount that they allocate to expenses to maintain their business and (ii)
their take-home earnings and (b) leaves those people in a better financial position
as a result of being in work.

<p>Claimants with earnings from self-employment are required to report them to DWP
on a monthly basis. These earnings are reported on a simplified 'cash accounting'
basis, which asks for the total income from receipts into the business and details
of payments out of the business under defined categories during the assessment period.
We assess net earnings after deducting business expenses. The requirements were designed
to be as simple as possible in order for self-employed claimants to easily report
their earnings and monthly reporting allows Universal Credit to be adjusted on a monthly
basis.</p><p> </p><p>Where claimants are in the 12-month grace period or are gainfully
self-employed and earning above the Minimum Income Floor (MIF), the single taper rate
acts to ensure that they are better off working and earning more under Universal Credit,
removing the cliff edges from the old legacy benefits system.</p><p>We announced at
Autumn Budget 2018 that all new gainfully self-employed claimants can, from September
2020, access a 12-month exemption period from the MIF. This change will assist all
gainfully self-employed claimants to grow their earnings, prepare and adjust for the
application of the MIF. In 2022/23 it will allow 130,000 self-employed people the
space to grow a successful business when moving on to Universal Credit.</p>

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department
holds on the correlation between the reduction in the rate of unemployment in the
West Midlands between 2010 and 2016 and any trend in the number of people employed
on zero-hour contracts in that region.

<p>Figures published by ONS show that rising employment in the West Midlands since
2010 – reflected in falling unemployment – has been dominated by more people in full-time
and permanent jobs.</p><p>Information on trends in zero-hours contracts over this
period is not available on a consistent basis. This reflects the view of the Office
for National Statistics (ONS) that responses to questions about zero-hours contracts
in the Labour Force Survey are likely to have been affected by greater awareness of
the term itself.</p><p> </p>

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 25
May 2016 to Question 37198, how many of the leaflets entitled Why the Government believes
that voting to remain in the European Union is the best decision for the UK have been
returned to his Department; and what the postage cost to the Government has been of
such returns.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the total monthly receipts
to the public purse were from (a) the fee charged for applications to the Child Maintenance
Service (CMS), (b) the collection fee for paying parents using the CMS collect and
pay service, (c) the collection fee for receiving payments using the CMS collect and
pay service and (d) enforcement fees levied on paying parents in each month since
June 2014.

<p>The introduction of fees and on-going collection charges are designed to act as
an incentive for parents to pause and consider the different options available to
them for a child maintenance arrangement, rather than applying to the statutory Child
Maintenance Service ‘by default’. Charges make a small contribution to a service that
is heavily subsidised by the taxpayer.</p><p> </p><p>Receipts in relation to the Child
Maintenance Service 2012 scheme, from June 2014 to March 2016, are provided in the
table below:</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td rowspan="3"><p><strong>Month</strong></p></td><td
rowspan="3"><p><strong>a) Application Fees Received <br> £000's</strong></p></td><td
rowspan="3"><p><strong>b) Fees Received from Paying Parents <br> £000's</strong></p></td><td
rowspan="3"><p><strong>c) Fees Received from Receiving Parents <br> £000's</strong></p></td><td
rowspan="3"><p><strong>d) Enforcement Fees <br> £000's</strong></p></td><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p>
</p></td></tr><tr><td><p> </p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Jun-14</strong></p></td><td><p>1.0</p></td><td><p>0.0</p></td><td><p>0.0</p></td><td><p>0.0</p></td><td><p>
</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Jul-14</strong></p></td><td><p>78.4</p></td><td><p>0.0</p></td><td><p>0.0</p></td><td><p>0.1</p></td><td><p>
</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Aug-14</strong></p></td><td><p>84.4</p></td><td><p>12.6</p></td><td><p>2.5</p></td><td><p>0.2</p></td><td><p>
</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Sep-14</strong></p></td><td><p>95.7</p></td><td><p>138.8</p></td><td><p>27.5</p></td><td><p>0.4</p></td><td><p>
</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Oct-14</strong></p></td><td><p>111.0</p></td><td><p>218.7</p></td><td><p>43.3</p></td><td><p>0.5</p></td><td><p>
</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Nov-14</strong></p></td><td><p>89.7</p></td><td><p>218.4</p></td><td><p>43.2</p></td><td><p>1.4</p></td><td><p>
</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Dec-14</strong></p></td><td><p>47.5</p></td><td><p>244.2</p></td><td><p>48.1</p></td><td><p>1.7</p></td><td><p>
</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Jan-15</strong></p></td><td><p>109.4</p></td><td><p>254.8</p></td><td><p>50.4</p></td><td><p>2.7</p></td><td><p>
</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Feb-15</strong></p></td><td><p>100.9</p></td><td><p>260.7</p></td><td><p>51.2</p></td><td><p>3.1</p></td><td><p>
</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Mar-15</strong></p></td><td><p>109.6</p></td><td><p>300.9</p></td><td><p>59.3</p></td><td><p>3.6</p></td><td><p>
</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Apr-15</strong></p></td><td><p>104.5</p></td><td><p>311.8</p></td><td><p>61.6</p></td><td><p>6.7</p></td><td><p>
</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>May-15</strong></p></td><td><p>113.6</p></td><td><p>329.6</p></td><td><p>64.8</p></td><td><p>4.5</p></td><td><p>
</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Jun-15</strong></p></td><td><p>125.9</p></td><td><p>378.7</p></td><td><p>74.0</p></td><td><p>5.9</p></td><td><p>
</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Jul-15</strong></p></td><td><p>136.4</p></td><td><p>393.7</p></td><td><p>76.8</p></td><td><p>8.0</p></td><td><p>
</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Aug-15</strong></p></td><td><p>145.3</p></td><td><p>391.3</p></td><td><p>76.7</p></td><td><p>8.9</p></td><td><p>
</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Sep-15</strong></p></td><td><p>156.8</p></td><td><p>460.5</p></td><td><p>89.9</p></td><td><p>10.8</p></td><td><p>
</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Oct-15</strong></p></td><td><p>160.6</p></td><td><p>479.2</p></td><td><p>93.6</p></td><td><p>10.6</p></td><td><p>
</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Nov-15</strong></p></td><td><p>128.2</p></td><td><p>467.3</p></td><td><p>90.6</p></td><td><p>13.1</p></td><td><p>
</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Dec-15</strong></p></td><td><p>108.1</p></td><td><p>582.1</p></td><td><p>112.6</p></td><td><p>14.1</p></td><td><p>
</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Jan-16</strong></p></td><td><p>193.1</p></td><td><p>552.3</p></td><td><p>107.3</p></td><td><p>14.0</p></td><td><p>
</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Feb-16</strong></p></td><td><p>162.3</p></td><td><p>575.5</p></td><td><p>111.6</p></td><td><p>16.2</p></td><td><p>
</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Mar-16</strong></p></td><td><p>157.8</p></td><td><p>651.2</p></td><td><p>126.9</p></td><td><p>17.3</p></td><td><p>
</p></td></tr><tr><td><p><strong>Total</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>2,520.2</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>7,222.3</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>1,411.8</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>143.9</strong></p></td><td><p>
</p></td></tr></tbody></table>

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the projected monthly income
is from charges in the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) once all cases have transferred
from the legacy schemes to the CMS.

<p>The introduction of fees and ongoing collection charges are designed to act as
an incentive for parents to pause and consider the different options available to
them for a child maintenance arangement, rather than applying to the statutory Child
Maintenance Service 'by default'. Charges make a small contribution to a service that
is heavily subsidised by the taxpayer.</p><p>It is not possible to forecast with confidence
the projected monthly income from fees and charges in the Child Maintenance Service
as this is sensitive to several factors, which includes the volumes of applications,
the size of the caseload and client behaviour. It will also be sensitive to outcomes
from the Child Support Agency case closure process, as cases are not automatically
transferred.</p>